With Apple Silicon MacBooks to be announced on Nov 10th, which DAWs will be ready in Q4?

[antic604]

By now it's pretty certain we're gonna see at least 2 laptop Macs (likely a new Air and smaller, e.g. 14'' mid-level Pro) announced & released in a matter of few days.

I wonder which DAWs - other than Logic Pro X / Garage Band - you think will be ready to support it say by the end of 2020?

I'd hope that Live might be, because they've not released 10.2 for so long probably because they've been working hard on this? I also think Studio One would be a good candidate, with a sizeable dev team and modern code-base that's probably easier to migrate than something like Cubase or ProTools? Reaper seems to be a given, too - it's already on Linux that's much closer to macOS than Windows. Obviously I'm rooting for Bitwig, but I'm afraid it might be difficult for such a small team that's also in the middle of beta for 3.3 right now. I have serious doubts about FL Studio, because they've only added macOS support 1 or 2 years ago, so probably it's way too early for them to make the next step. Reason? Yeah, no.

As a bonus point - do you expect new Mac laptops to come with touch screens, in an attempt to further close the gap between user experience on Macs and iPad? Since the silicon will be the same and the OSes get closer, then I think it's inevitable that DAWs will have to get more touch-screen friendly since they will be able to run on both.

Or do you guys think DAW devs will adopt "wait and see" strategy, letting others pave the way and make mistakes?

I'm curious of your thoughts on this

[ And please, if you're gonna reply with "focus on what you have now and finish music" or the like, then just DON'T. I know you're a better, smarter and definitely more virtuous person than I am, so we don't have to discuss that anymore ]

[Passing Bye]

I guess Ableton Live, others really can afford to not care, because their DAW's aren't really that much used on macOS in general, let alone macOS mobile devices.

[kovacs]

I think everything will run as before with an emulator layer, just like the Rosetta feature when they moved from Motorola to Intel back in 2005. Otherwise there will be no incentive for anyone to buy a new Apple-silicon based Mac.

As for touch screens, I can only hope. It's not a dealbreaker for me (very happy with my iPad Pro).

[ozinga]

I do not think we will see anything working natively other than Logic until 2021.

[andypryce]

I don't think Ableton is working on or caring for ARM Macs at all. They are usually the latest to the party. Might see it supported in 2022 earliest.

[Crossinger]

Reason? Yeah, no.

At least they have ordered (and received) the Apple ARM Developer kit

I think everything will run as before with an emulator layer, just like the Rosetta feature when they moved from Motorola to Intel back in 2005.

But with a heavy performance loss (due to "emulation" rather than "virtualization")? This is usually a stab in the back for DAW's and other tools operating in realtime.

[kovacs]

But with a heavy performance loss (due to "emulation" rather than "virtualization")? This is usually a stab in the back for DAW's and other tools operating in realtime.

Not necessarily. Emulation and virtualization tech has come a long way. I can easily run FL Studio in Windows 10 in Parallels on my Macbook Pro. I would be surprised if Apple don't plan for this.

(But let's face it we have been surprised before )

Edit: Here's a take on it
https://www.synthtopia.com/content/2020 ... cbook-pro/

[Urs]

No issues with Reaper here...

[EvilDragon]

Reaper has had an ARM compile for a long time now (runs fine on Raspberry Pi...)

[Crossinger]

Edit: Here's a take on it
https://www.synthtopia.com/content/2020 ... cbook-pro/

Thanks for the edit & the link. I was just about to write a reply before. Well, indeed they maybe surprise us this time.

But I remember in the past the "emulation" (i.e. realtime simulation of another CPU architecture as an additional layer) was a real showstopper. We'll see. My MacBook Pro is quite new so I can wait a couple of years for a matured generation of AppleSilicon Macs.

Oh and BTT: I don't think that we'll see any other stuff than Apple apps (Logic, FCPX) in Q4.

[Crossinger]

EDIT: Deleted. Wrong button - replied to my own post.

[rod_zero]

I don't expect any DAW to be ready on release date, probably for next year.

[Gamma-UT]

I don't think Ableton is working on or caring for ARM Macs at all. They are usually the latest to the party. Might see it supported in 2022 earliest.

They converted the graphics to Metal from OpenGL several months ago. They might be more ready than you think.

[Passing Bye]

Agree, it would be strange for Ableton to disregard their core user base, if you see performer with Macbook, there's like more than 50% of chances he's running Live on it, if anyone should care, it's them.

Maybe they aren't going to be there immediately, but postponing it for 2 years is business suicide.

[Jolaff]

EDIT: Deleted. Wrong button - replied to my own post.

I hope you were about to agree with yourself